Banner ads more appealing to women

Survey finds online advertising more popular than you might think

Men are less likely to 'click thru' on banner advertising than women - but only just, according to research from PC Data. 51 per cent of women and 43 per cent of men said they occasionally clicked on advertisements, while 39 per cent and 29 per cent respectively stated they 'seldom' clicked on the banners. But men and women both respond the same way to styles of advertising. Nearly three quarters (70 per cent) of all respondents said that animated ads were their favourite type. Men favour non animated ads more than women, 25 per cent to 20 per cent, again a very slight difference. Neither group like pop up FLAB ads though, with only six per cent of men and eight per cent of women citing these as favourite. So what grabs the punters attention? PC Data says that curiosity about subject matter gets more people clicking on banner ads than anything else (61 per cent). Discounts and product recognition trail with a rather dismal 10 per cent each. And as much as we all say we hate advertising, a large proportion of surfers rely on banner ads for information about new sites. 49 per cent of men and women listed advertisement as a favoured source of information about new sites. It was the third most popular trigger, beaten only by personal recommendation and search engine results. ® Daily Net finance news from The Register